title: Wnt6 is required for maxillary palp formation in Drosophila.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Wnt6 is an evolutionarily ancient member of the Wnt family. In Drosophila, Wnt6 loss-of-function animals have not yet been reported, hence information about fly Wnt6 function is lacking. In wing discs, Wnt6 is expressed at the dorsal/ventral boundary in a pattern similar to that of wingless, an important regulator of wing size. To test whether Wnt6 also contributes towards wing size regulation, we generated Wnt6 knockout flies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Wnt6 knockout flies are viable and have no obvious defect in wing size or planar cell polarity. Surprisingly, Wnt6 knockouts lack maxillary palps. Interestingly, Wnt6 is absent from the genome of hemipterans, correlating with the absence of maxillary palps in these insects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Wnt6 is important for maxillary palp development in Drosophila, and phylogenetic analysis indicates that loss of Wnt6 may also have led to loss of maxillary palps on an evolutionary time scale.
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany. a.teleman@dkfz.de.
authors.forename: Nikolaos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Doumpas
authors.forename: Gáspár
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jékely
authors.forename: Aurelio A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Teleman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D055786:Gene Knockout Techniques; D008443:Maxillary Sinus / Q000196:embryology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins; C432150:Wnt6 protein, Drosophila